Blues still remain maddeningly inconsistent. A step or two forward, followed by a step or two back. And at home it’s as if there is a mental block that needs shifting ever since that horror afternoon against Barnsley.

Ipswich, considering the players on their squad list, should have been doing much better these past months.

Obviously they were galvanised by their new manager and with an early goal to protect – how Blues could have done with scoring first – did so with the kind of resilience they haven’t apparently shown before. But that’s not of necessary concern to Clark nor Blues.

Once more at St Andrew’s, Blues didn’t drive the agenda, nor did they possess ingenuity or spark. Not until the second half when Nikola Zigic’s introduction helped make a difference did it change.

And even then Zigic himself, maybe a little rusty after four weeks of inactivity due to suspension, missed two good chances, a free header and a one-on-one which, to be fair to the goalkeeper, saw Stephen Henderson come out to him quickly and save with his feet.

At Leeds, Blues strutted and bossed from the start. In the second half at Millwall they did. Yes, maddeningly inconsistent all right.

It didn’t help that a poor pass intended for David Murphy by Nathan Redmond went straight to Lee Martin and Ipswich scored, DJ Campbell rifling the ball into the top corner from a tight angle after he got a fortunate ricochet from Martin’s original shot/pass.

That was eight minutes gone and for the rest of the half Ipswich sat in a solid shape, brought their wingers in narrow, and Blues, for all the possession and patient passing (some of which went astray), never penetrated or had the visitors on edge. It was all too stodgy and safe.

It was more abrasive and urgent after the interval. Marlon King was again influential, Zigic caused trouble, Ravel Morrison also came to the fore. Ipswich defended manfully, however. There were a couple of goal-saving blocks and, in the third minute of stoppage time, the ball popped back to Curtis Davies off King following a twisting Zigic flick and an equaliser seemed certain... but no, Davies snatched and rushed the chance and half-volleyed the ball over the crossbar from eight yards.

So a third St Andrew’s defeat in four games.

Unfortunately, with every poor home performance and result, the more the fans become disillusioned and unbelieving. Blues really do need a resounding win at St Andrew’s and to put together a performance, from first whistle to last, that convinces them.

Their best recent displays, and best periods, have, by and large, happened on the road.

You can tell people that for a 25-minute stint at Millwall, Blues played some of the best football they have in the last year or so. And at Leeds, it was thoroughly complete in all departments.

But to then slip up again at home, against the league’s bottom side... with Barnsley still a memory that has yet to be banished.

Whether the players now go into a game at St Andrew’s with trepidation, who knows for sure. But the snowball effect is an atmosphere that smacks of disgruntlement and of the fans sitting there as if to say ‘well, go on then, show us, here, on our ground’. Clark picked up on the theme afterwards. He said when Blues don’t start brightly, when they don’t come out of the blocks and dictate the tone, it is counter-productive.

“We’re creating a negative attitude around the stadium with our first-half performance,” he analysed. “They’ve got to lift themselves and we’ve got to learn to play at home. I cannot understand it how players cannot play in front of their own fans.”

Asked how to get rid of that negativity, Clark answered: “Play like we did in the second half. You only create negativity because you put a flat performance in the first half. If you play like you did in the second half with a bit of spirit and creating chances and putting the opposition under a bit of pressure the crowd are with you and right behind you.

“But if you give them something that’s flat, there’s no movement off the ball, it’s slow and pedantic and you don’t create anything of course it’s going to result in a quiet atmosphere.

The state of flux caused by the ownership situation doesn’t help either.

Carson Yeung, due to house arrest in Hong Kong, and Peter Pannu, due to the urgent business that needs to be attended to in Hong Kong, are absentee owner/chairman. Everybody now accepts that there has to be a change, everybody knows it is coming – but it has to come pretty damn quickly to stop this lingering, festering feeling of drift. A fresh regime, fresh ideas, investment and positivity – Blues and St Andrew’s needs such a shot in the arm.

And Blues need to reproduce consistently what they are capable of – this same starting XI had looked eminently capable in the previous three matches.